Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) is a technology which is standardized by the European Telecommunications Standard Institute (ETSI). MEC provides an IT service environment and cloud-computing capabilities at the edge of the mobile network, within the Radio Access Network (RAN) and in close proximity to mobile subscribers. The aim is to reduce latency, ensure highly efficient network operation and service delivery, and also offer an improved user experience.
Based on a virtualized platform, MEC is an emerging technology for 5G networks together with Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and Software-Defined Networking (SDN). MEC helps in advancing the transformation of the mobile broadband network into a programmable world and contributes to satisfying the demanding requirements of 4G or 5G in terms of throughput, latency, scalability and automation.
The number of IoT devices is expected to reach billions. These devices have very low computing power as a complex system is not considered to perform most IoT tasks. An example of such an IoT device is a sensor device such as a temperature sensor, a tracking device, a metering device, etc., with the capability to connect to the Internet. Many IoT devices comprise a microcontroller, sensors and SIM modules for wireless communications. There is a need to aggregate various IoT device messages connected through the mobile network close to the devices. Various devices are connected over different forms of connectivity such as 3G, LTE, WiFi, 5G, or other radio technologies. In general, the messages generated by these devices are small and come in different forms of protocols. There is therefore a need for a low latency aggregation point to manage the various protocol and distribution of messages. MEC can be used to connect and control these devices remotely and enables distribution of IoT services into the highly distributed mobile base station environment and enable applications to respond in quickly.
However, currently, resource delivery or orchestration is always thought to be masterminded by a central entity such as the NFV enabled operator pushing/provisioning a set of functions towards the IoT devices. This works adequately in some scenarios, but does not fit all cases, especially the ones which need services at the network edge. Also, provisioning/pushing adds a lot of unnecessary management overhead to the operator cloud and does not work well, if at all, in roaming scenarios.